A Comparative Study on AC Conductivity and Dielectric Behavior of Multiwalled Carbon Nanotubes and Polyaniline Coated Multiwalled Carbon Nanotubes Filled High Density Polyethylene-Carbon Black Nanocomposites.

This paper presents an experimental investigation on AC conductivity and dielectric behavior of carbon black reinforced high density polyethylene (HDPE-CB) and HDPE-CB filled with multiwalled carbon nanotubes (MWNTs-CB-HDPE) and Polyaniline (PAni) coated MWNTs-CB-HDPE nanocomposites. The electrical properties such as dielectric constant ([variant_greek_epsilon]′), dissipation factor (tan δ) and AC conductivity (σac) of nanocomposites have been measured with reference to the weight fraction (0.5 and 1 wt% MWNTs), frequency (75 KHz-30 MHz), temperature (25-90 °C) and sea water ageing. The experimental results showed that the increased AC conductivity and dielectric constant of the nanocomposites were influenced by PAni coated MWNTs in HDPE-CB nanocomposites. The value of dielectric constant and tan δ decreased with increasing frequency. Further more, above 5 MHz the AC conductivity increases drastically whereas significant effect on tan δ was observed in less than 1 MHz. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]